Bringing Super Roleplayers Together [CORP]

Engine troubles!

Consider this post a hastily prepared summoning ritual for our Lore Lord, for this is a character concept that's been a bit tough to finalize and I'd like some clarification/further ideas on how to make it work. After spending one time with a friend who happens to have a "wish gone weird" sort of teen hero concept, I've had an idea to make something similar of my own.

While I've not had much care for CO's implementation of vehicles from a mechanical standpoint, immediately I was inspired to try to work one into the concept of an RP character of similar premise. Not that they would simply have a jet that they could hop in and fly around-- no, the character in question would have the power to change himself into said vehicle.

Essentially: Turbo Teen, but with a jet. That's the idea.

But that's all I have set in stone. Where I'm stuck is what might be a more convincing and fun origin and backstory to play. I have two options, but my lack of familiarity with Champions lore sets me back from feeling like I could be convincing with either.

In either case, his origin would be tie to the Imaginal Realms, namely Babylon. In the first case, an artifact displaced from that plane somehow ends up on Champs Earth and its magic causes the character to transform, possibly in a similar premise to the "weird wish" character I mentioned earlier. The other, is to actually have the character itself be from the City of Man, perhaps some sentient embodiment of flying vehicles. If that's such a thing that can happen.

After that, I'm stuck for a name. I keep wanting to go between something more fitting of a traditional superhero, or a really punny sounding name that almost deliberately gives away that he's... more than meets the eye.

Entirely a side note Epel, but BB gave me a hand on mechanon's view of cars/not anthropomorphic robots a while back when I created the Clone swarm's "Accidental Transforming Carbot" [ otherwise known as What happens in Shop Class stays in Shop Class]

I belive @Riltmos has "Hawkwing Intercepter" the transforming killbot that thinks it's a dragon. Might get his opinion of playing one too:)

Though the difference I see between both of ours characters and your concept, is ... robots, and not a meatbag [ so to speak] I'd LOVE to know how you can make the character go from flesh to metal, without it being nanomachines or transhuman cyborged up or some such. [Sounds like you're thinking magic? could work]

But, however you figure it, I do want to see this one in action and how you incorporate the various parts of his chosen vehicles into his costumes! You can Do it! :D

[grumble] Can't even get a good night's sleep without some dang fool summoning me... [/grumble]

😉

I can think of a few lore-derived routes to get to where you want to go, Epel. Rather than belabor any one of them, I'll just throw a bunch out to see if any tickle your fancy, and then we can build from there. I will add that some might be harder to justify conceptually depending on whether you (a) want your character to have a completely human-looking form at least part of the time, (b) want it to think and act like a typical American (or generally Western) teenager.

Another dimension is certainly one possibility, especially for a combination of magic and technology; and Babylon an appropriate source dimension. Among the natives of Babylon are creatures called "conurbites," looking mostly human but with a plastic-y skin and some mechanical/electronic components. They typically have the capacity to "morph" parts of their bodies, usually their hands into some type of tool. But conurbites are continuing to mutate as human society does, so it would not be unreasonable for one to have developed both a more human appearance, and more radical morphing.

Because humans often treat their machines as though they were alive, in Babylon they often are. It's possible one of them could have "evolved" to take on a more human-looking form. Also, Babylon incorporates purely imaginary human cities, such as the "Metropolis" of Fritz Lang's classic movie. If you're familiar with that, you'll know a sapient humanoid robot disguised as human is already an element in it.

Another apt dimension would be Multifarian Earth. Magic is more commonly used there than on Champions Earth, but because of its jumbled time-line, archaic, contemporary and futuristic technology all mingle. "Citizen Harmon" (aka Shadow Destroyer) frequently blended sorcery with tech, so your character could be a product of his or another "techno-mage."

Changing the source direction from extra-dimensional to extra-terrestrial, your character could have become "bonded" to some alien tech, in a manner similar to the anime character, the Guyver; or more recent incarnations of Blue Beetle from DC Comics. For example, he might have found a crashed Hzeel scout ship, and in touching its semi-biological components absorbed it or part of it. The Mandaarians continue to covertly observe Earth, which may include automated probes, one of which might have been damaged in a crash. Mandaarian tech has proven advanced enough to grant humans near-magical super powers.

For something even more Transformer-ish 😛 , the alien all-machine civilization called the X'endron Network has already sent one sophisticated robot to infiltrate Earth for possible conquest; but that robot had its programming scrambled during transit, losing its memories. Something similar could have occurred to a followup mission when the first robot failed to report back. This origin works particularly well if you want your character to carry a separate consciousness, or be a fusion of human and machine personalities.

For a more purely Earthly origin, the character could have been "cyborged up" as Snookums put it 😉 by a human agency. ARGENT would be a likely culprit. They often kidnap young people to use as experimental subjects, most often runaways off the street; and they've created cyborgs before. Another alternative is the Canada-based villain Cyberlord. When he was the wholly human cyberneticist named Damon Meklar, he frequently bionically augmented people for pay; the Canadian hero Justiciar is one of his creations. But over time Cyberlord has become more megalomaniacal, so he might more recently have created your character out of pure grandiosity.

Another possibility is an accidental cyborg. The "cyberkinetic" (machine-controlling) villain called the Engineer discovered one of Mechanon's secret bases, and unintentionally triggered its programming to repair/rebuild Mechanon should that villain be defeated; but its "repairs" were inflicted on the Engineer herself, making her a fusion of human and machine.

The Champions villain called Automaton is a disembodied intelligence which can occupy machines to use as his "body," including making them do things physically which exceed their normal operating parameters. A mystical villain called Golem has a similar power, to cast his spirit into any statue to animate it. Those precedents would justify your character not transforming into a vehicle, but "possessing" one instead; perhaps also altering it in the process to look more humanoid.

I can think of one more precedent which might work for you. An official Champions hero called Captain Glory was originally a fictional comic-book character. A teenager with latent mutant powers of reality alteration accidentally brought him to life. Someone with similar nascent powers, and a fixation on Transformers or suchlike fiction, could incarnate one of its characters, or change himself to have comparable abilities.

I hope that was helpful. If you want to explore more about any of the above, feel free to post a followup. 😇

I knew you'd previously written about Babylon in one of my threads and so I was looking for it prior to posting the OP-- turns out it was in my Urban Legends thread a couple months back. It'll be good to have this a little more fresh in mind, though, so thanks!

Given I wanted to take a similar route of origin as the friend who inspired me with his "weird wish" character, I think that it would be ideal if that origin of the character stared out as a normal human, who then gained the ability to morph into a (flying) vehicle through some means.

A) Given that Babylon is magical in nature, would contact with the plane's energies be enough to induce some sort change in a potential human "visitor"? Perhaps even give him certain conurbite-like traits?

(a) If it were indeed the other way around and it was a(n advanced) Conurbite that ended up on Earth, I might consider having the character be an adult rather than a kid, but have his displacement really affect his development as a character. It'd probably be much more difficult.

B) I'm interested in the idea of a piece of alien/extradimensional tech bonding to the character. You go on later to mention a villain NPC that activated [Mechanon's] self-repair protocol in her origin-- how about something that combines the two? The character could find the some sort of blueprint device that (if it bonds witht he character) eventually re-writes their form and function to that of a vehicle. The blueprint could be alien in design, or it might simply be a record of an Earth vehicle kept on board for some reason. (Transformers comes to mind for this, as they have the capability to assume the forms of both regular and alien transportation-- as does what you just mentioned to Kenndar about the whole "ideal representation of object" theory you tossed in for his gun user.)

C) Reality warping is somewhat of a last resort for me. I've used it before (in one of my favorite characters to play in CoH, no less!)

Given I wanted to take a similar route of origin as the friend who inspired me with his "weird wish" character, I think that it would be ideal if that origin of the character stared out as a normal human, who then gained the ability to morph into a (flying) vehicle through some means.

A) Given that Babylon is magical in nature, would contact with the plane's energies be enough to induce some sort change in a potential human "visitor"? Perhaps even give him certain conurbite-like traits?

Short answer: it's a superhero comic-book world. Why not? 😉

To suggest a more concrete scenario: someone from Earth accidentally blunders through a dimensional nexus to Babylon (it's been known to happen -- nexi to Babylon can randomly appear in large cities), and into a Babylonian techno-mage's workshop in the middle of an experiment. The Earthling gets caught in the weird forces at play... Pow! Transformer powers! Just a variation on the classic lab-accident origin for many supers.

B) I'm interested in the idea of a piece of alien/extradimensional tech bonding to the character. You go on later to mention a villain NPC that activated [Mechanon's] self-repair protocol in her origin-- how about something that combines the two? The character could find the some sort of blueprint device that (if it bonds with he character) eventually re-writes their form and function to that of a vehicle. The blueprint could be alien in design, or it might simply be a record of an Earth vehicle kept on board for some reason. (Transformers comes to mind for this, as they have the capability to assume the forms of both regular and alien transportation-- as does what you just mentioned to Kenndar about the whole "ideal representation of object" theory you tossed in for his gun user.))

Hmm... for that specific concept I might have an idea. Any objection to Death Boy originally being from, or having a connection to the state of Nebraska? 😏

When the alien gladiator now known on Earth as "Herculan" first crashed in Nebraska, in the small Malvan ship he escaped the Malvan arena in, the ship was set upon and substantially trashed by a mob thinking this was another alien invasion. The American government has since recovered all the parts of the ship that it could, but at least one fragment was carried off by one of the mob as a "souvenir." It's possible that someone else could have taken another.

Malva's incredibly advanced technology is the embodiment of Clarke's Law, able to perform seemingly miraculous feats. Perhaps the souvenir is a module from the ship's self-repair system, maybe including an on-board sensor to identify and locate nearby compatible technology it can cannibalize to assist the repair process. But it was probably damaged in the crash and subsequent vandalism, so might not work precisely as intended. In other words, however you need it to. 😈

When the alien gladiator now known on Earth as "Herculan" first crashed in Nebraska, in the small Malvan ship he escaped the Malvan arena in, the ship was set upon and substantially trashed by a mob thinking this was another alien invasion. The American government has since recovered all the parts of the ship that it could, but at least one fragment was carried off by one of the mob as a "souvenir." It's possible that someone else could have taken another.

Malva's incredibly advanced technology is the embodiment of Clarke's Law, able to perform seemingly miraculous feats. Perhaps the souvenir is a module from the ship's self-repair system, maybe including an on-board sensor to identify and locate nearby compatible technology it can cannibalize to assist the repair process. But it was probably damaged in the crash and subsequent vandalism, so might not work precisely as intended. In other words, however you need it to. 😈

I might actually see this (or some variant) working for me. In addition to picking up the module, perhaps the character himself could himself be involved in an accident of some kind, prompting it to activate and assimilate the parts of the vehicles involved into the gestalt entity I'm looking for. Since the device was on his person, he'd end up being caught in the center of it all, which causes his change. (Which I'm thinking may involve his "human" form adopting a metallic look and so on.)

As an extra, the justification for why this vehicle is a Hawkwing-- since I bought one for the purpose of making the character! (:x)-- is because it turns out said character is a fan of the hero such craft are associated with. Should the device have access to Earth telecommunications, it might be able to source at least the design likeness from somewhere even if what's under the hood turns out to be completely alien. (If another vehicle catches my eye that's not related to the HWs, I'd just retcon accordingly.)

Now, names. I mentioned before that I was stuck between giving him a hero name or a self referential/tongue-in-cheek "common" name. I keep coming back to Jack Hawk as a potential candidate of the latter, but I keep trying to stick to attempting to find something of the former category that might work... and failing. And I lost my list asides. Any other sugggestions others might be able to figure out?

You might look over some of the names for species of hawks, or birds closely related to hawks, to see if any strike a cord. Some could be serious, e.g. "Sparrowhawk," "Osprey," or "Peregrine;" others might have that tongue-in-cheek quality, such as "Sharp Shin" or "Long Tail."

You might look over some of the names for species of hawks, or birds closely related to hawks, to see if any strike a cord. Some could be serious, e.g. "Sparrowhawk," "Osprey," or "Peregrine;" others might have that tongue-in-cheek quality, such as "Sharp Shin" or "Long Tail."

You might look over some of the names for species of hawks, or birds closely related to hawks, to see if any strike a cord. Some could be serious, e.g. "Sparrowhawk," "Osprey," or "Peregrine;" others might have that tongue-in-cheek quality, such as "Sharp Shin" or "Long Tail."

Cobbled together some other potential details about the character while airing out my brainstorm to Smackwell last night. But before I get into those, I think I'm deciding to go with my gut feeling and use Jack Hawk as the character's name for a change.

The character picked up the item as a curio in relative proximity to an alien crash site, which could be Herculan's stolen craft or something original. Either way, he was attracted to taking it due to the low humming noise it gave off despite looking like a solid fragment of metal, and from that point seemed to always keep it in his jacket pocket.

The unknown device activates when the Jack is involved in a crash of his own, causing it to fuse with the character and subsequently draw the material from the vehicle(s) involved to repair his body, which had been injured from the accident. The result, while the man's appearance seemed unchanged* on the outside, he had been transmuted to be completely made out of metal.

* I've been considering having the character be a youth to start with, but the result of the fusion perhaps giving him the appearance of an adult. This might also lead him to change his identity, which is why he adopts the name of Jack Hawk post-transformation.

That wasn't the only change, however. Where the jet part comes in is the fact that originally, the module was trying to rebuild to the schematics of the ship it came from, but due to a lack of material for it, it ended up accommodating by finding another "blueprint"... somehow.

That wasn't the only change, however. Where the jet part comes in is the fact that originally, the module was trying to rebuild to the schematics of the ship it came from, but due to a lack of material for it, it ended up accommodating by finding another "blueprint"... somehow.

If as you say Jack was always fascinated with jet aircraft, perhaps the module "read" the design from Jack's mind. It may have been designed to activate telepathically, and was jarred "awake" by the intensity of Jack's mental distress during the accident. Not improbable for Malvan tech.

He need not even have found the artifact near the crash site in rural Nebraska. Herculan landed well over a decade ago. Over the intervening years the module could have been sold, traded, or stolen multiple times, and traveled a long way.

If you do go the Malvan route, there's one potential plot development to keep in the back of your mind. The highest Malvan law is not to give their technology to any less advanced race, i.e. pretty much everyone else. The likely reason they haven't already taken Herculan's and Ironclad's ships away from the United States government, is because they're non-functional. If the Malvans discovered that someone like Jack Hawk possessed a working Malvan device, they'd surely apply their considerable resources to recovering it.

However, if Jack's machine form doesn't look Malvan, as you describe it, it might be a long time before they realize that, if ever. In other words, only if you'd find that interesting. 😈

Exploring further details where it comes to building on an origin and I've came up with some ideas almost stream of consciousness style.

One avenue which I was considering is (depending on the character's starting age) giving Jack or his family ties to the military-- namely the Air Force-- to provide further context as to why he turns into a plane instead of a car or some other vehicle.

Another was the potential to have a family figure (father, for example) who could also have been involved (and died?) in the crash. In much the same way as the plane, said relative would end up being used as "reconstruction material", resulting in the gestalt Jack Hawk having a "human" form that looks more grown up.

Up in the air again, it seems-- but there is some good news to come out of this thread! I recently managed to get a working character started in game for this "Turbo Jet" concept, albeit with a couple of changes.

For one, he/it is now known as Pilotwing, which I though was a neat little reference to the character's dual man/machine nature. The other is the vehicle model he morphs into was changed to a VTOL aircraft (namely, the Wilson sold in the Z-Store), a design choice that was somewhat influenced by experimenting with the tailor and finding parts I'd never considered using before.

On the other hand, introducing PW to the roster meant deciding to give up on Modular, another tech hero concept I'd been mulling over for some time. Perhaps some details from the latter character (who had been sitting as a Lv6 no-tut Automaton archetype created when the concept of Epic ATs were a thing) may end up flowing into Pilotwing, but time may tell.

The origin still hasn't been an easy thing to decide on. I've still kept with the idea of wanting to involve Babylon as a potential jumping-in point: namely, a pilot whose plane crashes through a dimensional nexus and is "rebuilt" by Babylonian engineers into a gestalt form resembling a Conurbite.

*I was gonna peg him as a military officer of some kind, but after doublechecking what the MCPD has access to in their special armory, perhaps it's not as farfetched for him to be a police pilot? What about a civilian/non-meta operative of UNTIL?*Where would his "crash" be? As intrinsically connected to cities as Babylon is, would the accident have to happen in a metropolitan setting (such as MC)? Would it be feasible to, given I went a military route, use the historical location of Babylon (in present-day Iraq) as the nexus point?*Lastly, would it be too much to assume that Pilotwing's former human self had a co-pilot? After it was suggested to me, I had considered playing off such a relationship in an almost Firestorm-esque manner, with either two minds sharing the Pilotwing body, or a completely fused singular consciousness with conflicting memories and experiences.

After reading through the entire thread up 2 this point an idea came 2 me that u could use to negate a few retcon's that may or may not happen down the road.

since his involvement in Babylon u could have him absorb machine parts to repair himself(straight up eating em might work who knows) which sometimes might change his appearance along with the vehicle he transforms into.

Does a nexus to Babylon have to be in a big city? Like I always say, this is a comic-book world. Freakish coincidental events happen all the time, especially with all the supernatural and super-science stuff that heroes and villains throw around. Connections to Babylon are just far more likely to form in major cities, particularly long-lasting ones. I see no reason why a short-lived one couldn't form almost anywhere under the right circumstances.

That said, your suggestion about one occurring at the site of a former world-class city is a logical extrapolation that does fit the history of the dimension of Babylon. There are many ancient ruined cities in Iraq and Afghanistan where a nexus might linger. It's also worth noting that a dimensional "nexus," as per the lore, isn't necessarily a bridge to another dimension. More often it's a site where the magical energies from another dimension "leak" into our own. Someone caught in those energies, particularly in the midst of a major disruptive event (like a 'plane crash) could be transformed by the experience. Precedents (available upon request) suggest that the effect of the magical energies tends to follow the motif of the dimension they're derived from.

Your description of the scenario you want for Pilotwing's origin reminded me of something else which may be relevant. Have you ever seen the first pilot for the original Star Trek television series, later remade into a two-part episode called "The Menagerie?" A human space craft crashes on an alien world, and its inhabitants rescue the critically-injured sole survivor of the crash. They attempt to repair her body, but due to unfamiliarity with our species they put her back together as a maimed, ugly monster. There are dimensions in the Champions Universe radically different from our own in conditions and inhabitants, into which some humans have accidentally stumbled. For example:

Lam Kuei ("blue-faced demon") is a Chinese supervillain who sought one of the hidden temples reputed to teach potent secrets of the martial arts. While exploring the mountains of China he passed through an invisible portal to a dimension of spirit beings. These beings, unfamiliar with humans, examined him in ways they didn't recognize were torturous to him. When they learned to communicate with him and realized what they'd done, they tried to compensate Lam Kuei by teaching him great ch'i powers. The process inadvertently turned his skin bright blue. (Lam Kuei is written up in Champions Worldwide.)

Xargann is a dimension inhabited by natural shape-shifters. Some of their scientists have developed equipment to let them view other dimensions such as Earth's, and one scientist developed a means to incarnate herself in a developing human fetus so she could be born and experience life among our kind, while retaining her memories and powers. But a jealous rival sabotaged her experiment so she didn't keep her memories. On Earth she grew up to become the supervillain Morph. (Morph's write-up is in Champions Villains Vol. 3.) I can imagine someone crashing into Xargann from Earth going through the kind of Star Trek scenario described above, particularly appropriate given the fluidity of their own physical forms. Or you could create an original dimension to precisely suit your needs.

Just throwing out ideas. 😇

As to a co-pilot, I'm not familiar enough with aviation to say who would be in a particular type of vehicle on a particular military or law-enforcement mission. However, I am familiar with the concept of a "wing-man" -- who says only one vehicle has to be involved in the crash? For that matter, a mid-air collision might have precipitated the crash. The pilot of the other craft could blame Pilotwing for whatever happened to him, if you want to use that as a nemesis route. As to CU super-agencies, it's not stated whether current official PRIMUS has access to their own air vehicles, but UNTIL definitely does, including the Valkyrie-class VTOL fighter (which you'll find in UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom).

A quick aside to BW161's suggestion-- something like what you described is certainly plausible, especially if I go the angle of tying in the Modular idea. That said, I tend to stick with iconic looks when it comes to any particular character, and I'm not particularly inclined to obtain more vehicles by any means (don't really have the time or focus to grind, and I'd rather spend Zen elsewhere than the vehicles sink). I've also MK2ed out the Wilson, so I'm pretty committed to having that be his make and model.I think I'm close to settling on something a little more substantial to work with thanks to the new responses.

*An UNTIL pilot serving abroad, perhaps one decorated for distinguished service. He has family at home in America, including a wife and child.* The eruption of some kind of extradimensional nexus, as discussed above, takes place near the site of an ancient city along a routine mission's flightpath (?) and causes a freak storm. While his wingmen turn back and urge him to do the same, PW tries to beat the storm and this in turn leads to the crash.* His thoughts while at the brink of death (namely his idolisation of superheroes and his childhood dreams to "fly like a plane") are part of the catalyst which causes the energies of the leak to work their magic on him and cause the fusion effect.

The nexus could have been goosed by an evil occult organization trying to turn it to their purposes, if you'd like malevolent cultists pursuing Pilotwing. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the Middle East DEMON, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, or the Sons of Kingu could have been behind it. OTOH if we're talking an ancient Mesopotamian city, Pilotwing could have attracted the attention of the Babylonian chief god Marduk. In the modern age he's often secretly guided superheroes -- maybe he saw an opportunity to create one. Heck, the Emperor of Bablyon himself might have a hidden purpose in mind for Pilotwing.